That picture has nothing to do with anything in this post. It doesn’t need to, okay?
I’m not feeling so hot today. Upset stomach and all that nonsense. I was just going to skip posting today, but then I read a selection of interesting blogs and thought I’d share them here. So, in no particular order, blog posts I read today that might interest you, too.
1. Revisiting the pleasure of the serialized novel. — “On Twitter, Jane asked whether readers would buy a serialized novel and there didn’t seem to be much support for the idea. I thought about this for a while and wondered why people aren’t interested in serials anymore. Some of the great 19th-century authors published novels in installments, and one of the great pleasures of reading the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s was waiting for the next installment of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. While we eagerly watch mini-series and season-long drama arcs on TV, romance readers seem less willing to make the transition to serialized novels. And I realized I was just as reluctant….”
Thoughts on serialized novels? I have a book I’ve been considering serializing, but it seems like a lot of folks react to that negatively and see it as a money grab. Thoughts on that perspective? What makes it okay to serialize things like comics, still, but not books? Just hit me with your comments on this one. I’m curious.
2.
A gorgeous short story by Lightning Droplets. Read that with some morning coffee. A bit of word porn (in the non-sex way).
3. Wonderful thoughts about the journey of reading, the relationship between the writer and reader, and more. — “With authors that are new to me, or ones with whom our past journey has been rocky, I’m apprehensive. I walk gingerly and I’ve been known to drop their hand and walk back to the entrance, not wanting to return.
Some authors have led me down paths that I bitterly regret. I regret the time spent with them. I regret that subsequent journeys ruined past joy I experienced with them. These are authors that I stay away from.
Some authors have taken me down a journey that I love so much that I run from the exit to the entrance to start it all over again. If I see readers standing around at the front, I’ll run over to them and direct them to this awesome journey. Sometimes I’ll even pay their entrance fee.”
This gif has nothing to do with anything except that’s a smokin’ hot kiss, so…you know.
4. Recipes even a klutz can cook? Okay, count me in.
5. 
And, really, this is a pretty great piece on m/m fiction and the various issues around writing and reading it. Though, really, the most interesting aspect are the comments. I think in this case the comments > the post. — “The long explanation is that there are a lot of reasons I prefer m/m to m/f. One big one is the issue of gender politics — there’s a huge, rotten load of baggage that is dragged along behind any m/f relationship. You can’t escape it, it’s always there no matter what you do or how you try to structure your story, no matter whether you “believe” in it or want to deal with it or not. (This right here will lose a huge chunk of the population; they don’t want to hear about gender issues.)”
Leta Blake 
That Dear Author article was fantastic (Also, so’s that first gif. awwwwyeah.) Also the DA article is kinda topical to me right now because I just answered an author interview with the “why m/m?” question. I ended up kinda handwaving away the 2 hot guys are better than 1 claim and actually got into a discussion about power dynamics and self-insertion, some of my ideas on which have been influenced by posts I’ve seen you make over the years.
Fascinating stuff.
That Dear Author article was fantastic (Also, so’s that first gif. awwwwyeah.)
I agree! And that gif! Unf! 😉
Also the DA article is kinda topical to me right now because I just answered an author interview with the “why m/m?” question. I ended up kinda handwaving away the 2 hot guys are better than 1 claim and actually got into a discussion about power dynamics and self-insertion, some of my ideas on which have been influenced by posts I’ve seen you make over the years.
*high five* Awesome! I’m glad you handwaved that aspect to a degree. I mean, obviously, it plays a nice role, but there’s a deeper reason for it, imho, than that superficial answer seems to imply. I like seeing people think about it a little more deeply. Awesome!
Now I really want to see the good bits of Reid and Luke (after Noah and before, well, you know)
I highly recommend them. Sadly, there is so little of them to see. Alas.
With reference to the subject of serialization, I think that, in this fast-paced world, readers are reluctant to wait until the next installment. With TV, they only have to wait a week to see what happens next (or a season), but with published novel serializations, it’s not likely you’ll see the next in the series for about a year. People these days are too impatient. It’s hard enough to wait for a series of books where you get to read a huge chunk before the sequel comes out, but to wait for only part of the novel, well, I don’t think readers will wait around for it. If someone wants to serialize a novel, adding a few pages on a blog or in a newspaper (that one buys anyway) every week or so, people will be more likely to follow along with something like that – and it’s free, unless you belong to a site that charges people to visit. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the subject. 🙂
With reference to the subject of serialization, I think that, in this fast-paced world, readers are reluctant to wait until the next installment.
I wonder if some of it is a genre thing? People still wait for their comics, right?
but to wait for only part of the novel, well, I don’t think readers will wait around for it.
I’d be curious to know what Ginn Hale’s experience is with Rifter, but a few examples I can think of with regards to people being willing to wait to read (admittedly, free examples!) more of the novel/story are fanfiction Works In Progress (WIPs) and the novel The Captive Prince by Freece (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9305362-captive-prince) which was/is/has been put out in a serialized form and nearly everyone I know is reading it. So, I think readers will wait around for updates…but I’m not sure where the line gets drawn for them between things they get excited to have updated and being enraged at having to wait, or, worse, feelings something is a money grab. Given that my examples above are for free things (though one can buy Captive Prince now)…perhaps it is about the money?
You could be right. I was not aware of the stories you mentioned, and yes, people might be worried about sinking to much money in a serial when they don’t know when it will end. It would be interesting to see if such a project would be accepted by the general public. 🙂